Demand super funds deliver more says Whiteley

Government policy-makers should demand more of superannuation funds in terms of what they deliver their members, according to Industry Super Australia (ISA) chief executive, David Whiteley.

Whiteley has used his organisation's web site to argue that the debate around superannuation has to be about more than just tax, and that a starting point needs to be on defining a single objective for superannuation and what is required to deliver a comfortable retirement.

He said that the Government also needed to stop ad hoc fiddling with the superannuation policy settings and ensure that any changes which did occur were based on super, tax and retirement as a whole.

But he said that more demands needed to be placed on the superannuation industry itself.

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"Policy makers should also demand more of the financial services industry," Whiteley said. "The performance of a worker's super fund can have a profound impact on their retirement savings and this needs to be a central feature of the debate."

He claimed that any suggestion super funds should improve their performance would  be resisted by bank-owned funds "which on average produce lower returns because profits are divided up between members and bank shareholders".

"Not surprisingly, the banks support increasing the pension age to 70," Whiteley said.